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Eyewear is on Spring Break. When we come back in April, prepare yourself for brilliant poety features on major US poets, some insightful reviews of recent poetry, and other stimulating stuff for the eyes and mind. Enjoy the holidays.

Okay, here goes -something new, which is alwaysbetter than the old,unless the old is you, or me,and one zooms to Tut and his wrappings,which had their spring awakeningonly when the tomb was broken intowhich is a bit like a tuber, or bulbor whatever flowers really arebeing decrypted from the soil;and sometimes birth and floweringappear creepy, sort of B-Movieish,but we don't mention that so muchwhen dancing in the spring rain,with e.e.'s balloon man, who,nowadays, would be, bluntly,creepy too. Very.I am forcing a thing here, a style,because my head has no voice,only desires to appear reasonablewhen being strip searched,or ordering decaf lattes. I want,in all fairness, to get along,little doggy, with the days as they gofrom out of my skin and diaries,flying off somewhere like those blossomsthat represent what's best about springand then enguttered, filthy-pinkafter some rain bashing, enhance nothing,and appear as my though…

FOR ST PATRICK'S DAY, EYEWEAR IS VERY GLAD TO REPRISE THIS BLOG POST ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 15 2011.

Eyewear is delighted to feature Paul Muldoon. Muldoon (pictured here as a young man) is, in my opinion, the most significant poet from Ireland and Britain born since 1950. This is his 60th year. His style - witty, linguistically complex, musical, allusive, and filled with puns - is the most rhythmically original since Lowell's and Auden's. He is the funniest Irish writer of genius since Flann O'Brien; and the most alert to language's depths since Heaney and Joyce.

He has developed a way of patterning words and images by alluding to myth, legend, and also personal experience, employing a syntax that is playful and sometimes mesmeric. He might be the most verbally seductive of poets since Swinburne. His influence is apparent on a whole generation of poets, and the work of, say, Don Paterson, is unimaginable without the Muldoon template behind it. Since I start…

Pope Francis, the first Latin American Pope, the first Jesuit Pope, the first Francis as Pope, was an inspired choice this evening. At 76, he is unlikely to overstay his welcome. As someone who has devoted decades to working with the poorest people of Argentina, he brings a message of humility, charity, and kindness. He is, in person, mildly charismatic - gentle, intelligent, and capable. He has started well. For those against the 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, and its Church, however, even this miracle of sagacity - a choice made almost in heaven - is darkness in the light; some are already alluding to the Pope's past as linked to the Junta. This is very nasty unproven stuff, a real smear campaign, and misses the point - the Church's move into the 21st century has started today, on the 13th of March, 2013, only 13 years late. God bless Pope Francis.

Today was International Women's Day. Many women inspire me - perhaps, most especially, my wife, Sara Egan. However, my wee niece, Elizabeth Ann, is the most welcome and beloved new woman in the world, to me.

JON STONE was born
in Derby and currently lives in Whitechapel. His collection School of Forgery
(Salt, 2012) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and also won him an Eric
Gregory Award. He has also edited and published multiple small and large poetry
anthologies through Sidekick Books, the press he co-runs, including the Birdbook
series and the forthcoming Coin Opera 2, an anthology of computer game
poetry.

KIRSTEN IRVING is one
half of the team behind cult hand-made magazine Fuselit and collaborative poetry
press Sidekick Books. Her pamphlet, What To Do, was released in 2011 by
Happenstance Press and her debut collection, Never Never N…

In this
workshop Jacob Sam-La Rose will lead you through practical writing activities
using the Southbank Centre Poetry Library collection to explore ways of writing
and responding to page poetry. You’ll be challenged to not only generate new
work but also to refine your craft in this stimulating session. You’ll be asked
to read outside your comfort zone and take creative risks. You’ll leave the
workshop with a new perspective on how to write in response to the poetry and
writers that inspire you.